Cron Examples: 15 Common Recurrence Schedules explained

Fifteen schedules you'll actually need

#	Expression	Meaning
1	* * * * *	Every minute
2	*/5 * * * *	Every 5 minutes
3	*/30 * * * *	Every 30 minutes
4	0 * * * *	Every hour, at minute 0
5	0 */2 * * *	Every 2 hours
6	0 0 * * *	Every day at midnight
7	0 6 * * *	Every day at 6 AM
8	30 23 * * *	Every day at 11:30 PM
9	0 9 * * 1-5	Every weekday at 9 AM
10	0 0 * * 0	Every Sunday at midnight
11	0 9 * * 6,0	Every weekend at 9 AM
12	0 0 1 * *	1st of every month at midnight
13	0 0 1 1 *	Once a year, January 1st
14	0 9,17 * * *	Twice daily: 9 AM and 5 PM
15	59 23 28-31 * *	Near month-end, checked daily from the 28th (approximate "last day" pattern)

Why #15 needs an approximation

Cron has no native "last day of the month" concept — months have variable lengths (28–31 days), and cron fields don't support relative expressions like "L" (that's a Quartz-specific extension, not standard POSIX cron). The common workaround is scheduling a check every day from the 28th onward (28-31) and having the job itself verify it's actually the last day before running its real logic — the cron layer can't express that condition alone.

Combining list and range for irregular schedules

0 8-10,14-16 * * 1-5 runs at the top of every hour from 8–10 AM and 2–4 PM, weekdays only — combining two ranges via a list. This kind of nested combination is where hand-verifying against a descriptor tool pays off, since it's easy to misread which hours are actually included.

Common mistakes

• Forgetting */N doesn't mean "N times." */5 in the hour field means every 5th hour starting at 0 (0, 5, 10, 15, 20), not "5 times a day" — for evenly-spaced daily runs, verify the actual times produced.
• Assuming day-of-month and day-of-week combine as AND. Most cron implementations OR them when both are restricted — see the Complete Guide to Cron Expressions for the full explanation.
• Not accounting for server timezone. All of the above run in whatever timezone the executing system's clock uses — confirm before assuming "9 AM" means your local 9 AM.

FAQ

Is there a cron pattern for "the last day of the month"?
Not directly in standard cron — schedule a daily check across the 28th–31st and have the job verify the date itself, or use a scheduler extension (like Quartz's L) that supports it natively.

How do I run something twice a day at specific times?
List both hours with a comma: 0 9,17 * * * runs at 9 AM and 5 PM.

What does 0 */2 * * * actually run at?
Midnight, 2 AM, 4 AM, 6 AM, and so on — every even hour, at minute 0.

Verify any of these patterns (or your own) instantly with the Cron Expression Descriptor.